Currently, most electric vehicles (EVs) use rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIB) which often require 30 min to 8 hours for recharging. At present moment, there is no known LIB that can be recharged in a few minutes for EVs without compromising the lifespan and performance. Workarounds to this problem involve replacing the spent battery packs with fully charged ones or using fast charging methods that speed up the charging process to about half an hour.
In recent years, a viable EV battery candidate that has drawn significant research interest is the rechargeable Li-Air battery (LAB) which has comparable energy density to gasoline. In particular, research on LAB is focused primarily on solid state electrode materials. LAB uses oxygen from the air as the cathode, which is available in abundance at no cost. However, there are several problems faced in contemporary LAB research and development that needs to be overcome. Firstly, Li metal is commonly used as the anode. Since Li metal is dangerous and does not allow for recharge (except for half cells), it is not ideal for anodes. Secondly, during discharge of LAB, the Li metal anode/ceramic electrolyte interface becomes unstable when the solid anode is used up. Thirdly, most important of all is the formation of Li2O2 on the cathode's current collector during cell discharge. This Li2O2 film passivates the surface of the current collector and isolates it from electrical contact with the electrolyte.
Therefore, there remains a need to provide for an alternative battery that overcomes, or at least alleviates, the above problems.